On-Site Education Program 2005

January 10 - 27, 2005

Lead Teaching Artist: Claudia Tennyson
Artist's Assistant: Gloria Reyes
Collaborators: Arriba Juntos, Jewish Vocational Services, John O’Connell High School

Southern Exposure’s Artists in Education Program presents a workshop for young artists led by Claudia Tennyson with arts educator Gloria Reyes. Based on the concept of Do-It-Yourself, workshop participants created unique one-of-a-kind kits that might be used as a “prescription” for a specific societal or personal issue. Imagine a sewing kit that patches buildings, an auto repair kit that transforms it into another kind of vehicle, a first aid kit that treats despair. Participants used drawing to flesh out ideas and gather recycled materials and found objects to combine them in unique ways.

The goal of the On-Site Educational Program is to expose SoEx’s audience to our Artists in Education programs, which happen off-site most of the year, by utilizing the gallery to house workshops and projects that are created out of a unique collaboration between SoEx arts educators and gallery artists. With this program, SoEx hopes to increase the level of engagement of artists working in our exhibition program with arts educators and youth from our AIE programs, and ultimately with the public. Artists and youth utilize the gallery to develop and house workshops and projects geared toward engaging up to 200 youth between the ages of 18-23, a typically under- served population as well as the general public, based on exhibitions in SoEx’s gallery. This recently launched program allows for older youth from a range of different backgrounds to come together with professional artists to investigate current issues and learn contemporary art practices in order to produce an exhibition within the Southern Exposure gallery.